To cook a truly delicious octopus, you need to know only two secrets. The octopus must be softened first. The second is the octopus must be cooked at a low temperaturefor a long time so the solid collagen in its meat will turn into a tender isinglass.
If you took a frozen octopus for cooking, then the first secret is meaningless. If you get it fresh, then follo along to find out how to soften the octopus. An ultimate Sous Vide cooking method will help us out in an implementation of the second secret.
If you don't like octopus, then you just don't know how to cook it yet!
- Octopus (1,5-2 kilo) 1 piece
- Olive oil
- Lemon
-
Set your sous vide cooker to 77.2ºC (171ºF).
-
First you need to rinse and debeak the octopus. Rinse its body from sand and mucus with a stream water. Next, we skin the octopus since it may seem rough. Although, some restaurants leave the skin intact. If you want to keep the skin, then skip the following cooking steps: 3-4-5. -
Blanch the octopus to skin it. To do this, pour unsalted water into a pot and bring it to a boil. Immerse the octopus into boiling water 3 times for 20 seconds with 15 seconds breaks between immersions. -
When you're done blanching, leave the octopus in an ice bath to let it cool down.
-
Skin it down to the tentacles. Skin the tentacles only from the outside. Leave the skin intact around suckers as it's very tender. -
Cut the octopus into servings, put them in a vacuum bag, add olive oil. Immerse the bag in a water bath for 5 hours. -
When it's done, take the octopus out of the bag. Collect all the jelly-like cooking liquid in a container. Pat the meat dry with a paper towel, but be careful! It's really easy to tear off the suckers. That would be unfortunate as they'll get crispy and very tasty after grilling.
-
Grill or fry the octopus until crispy. Serve with lemon slices or any other side dish.
Don't throw away any leftovers you get in the cooking process. Freeze the broth obtained after cooking portionwise. It can be added later to rice with seafood, fish soups or any other dishes. This ingredient will enrich their taste greatly.
